Analysis of factors affecting players' performance and perception in multiplayer games

Abstract

In this paper we analyse different factors affecting players' perception and performance in multiplayer games. We introduce a mean opinion score metric borrowed from the subjective analysis of audio and video content to classify the player's perceived game quality. With a survey we investigated the player's view on network latency for a variety of games. Furthermore, we examine four different games under different network conditions and collect data on game score and subjective perception from every player. During the evaluation, we investigate the effect of latency and jitter on multiplayer games. We use regression analysis methods to identify coherences between delay, jitter, skill, game score, and the subjective impression of the player. Finally, we compare the results from the survey and the experiments.